SPUR Publications

SPUR believes that San Francisco can be a resilient city whose residents accept a significant earthquake as inevitable and are prepared to respond and sustain themselves and their communities until help arrives. Preparation for such a comprehensive emergency response must engage each individual, each community and the myriad of organizations that make up these communities. The Department of Public Health for the city of San Francisco has obtained a federal grant funding a proposal to create Community Disaster Response Hubs — field-based disaster coordination centers throughout San Francisco. The hubs can provide the infrastructure for community response to major emergencies. By identifying local resources, developing a plan to integrate and coordinate those resources with each other and with the city, and practicing communication through their hubs, communities can develop an effective response. In this report, SPUR encourages the adoption of the proposed Community Disaster Response Hub plan and offers a set of recommendations to strengthen the plan and sustain the program.

One of San Francisco's most important water bodies, Islais Creek comprises most of the southeastern sector of the city. Over the last decade, the area has fallen into a state of disrepair. Sara Jensen, SPUR's 2008 Piero N. Patro Fellow, proposes a concept plan for a food center to enliven this area of the city's eastern waterfront.

The Bay Area has been a hotbed of innovation since the 1970s. Today it is also one of the leading places for cleantech firms. What role will San Francisco play in the emergence of this new segment of the economy?

We all know "the big one" is coming. But are we ready? It's a question we must confront now, with boldness and with honesty: what will it take to make San Francisco a resilient city?

Set-asides allow citizens to set budget priorities, but they also limit flexibility. In this report, SPUR outlines current set-asides, analyzes their impact on public budgeting, and offers recommendations for reform.

Affordable "by design" units cost less to produce because they are small, efficiently designed and do not come with a parking space. Could this be a new way to produce middle-income housing without using public subsidy?

Nestled on the Central Waterfront between China Basin and Candlestick Point, Warmwater Cove lies in disrepair. How can we populate and enliven this forgotten nook of the southeastern waterfront?

Changing government is never easy. But when it comes to the two departments responsible for planning our city, can we afford not to?

Caltrain's surface rail yards represent enormous opportunities for San Francisco. In this report, SPUR proposes a plan to knit together Mission Bay with neighborhoods to the north and west.

San Francisco is about to build its first new subway in decades. It's a great project that could be even better with a few key improvements.

The costs of repairing, seismically upgrading and redeveloping the Port's piers are staggering. Restoring this valuable city asset will require new thinking and new cooperation among government agencies.

In 2004, Mayor Gavin Newsom created TechConnect, an initiative to explore how to deliver free wireless Internet throughout San Francisco. After a lengthy public process, the city selected a team of EarthLink and Google. Given the potential benefits of the proposed system, SPUR requests the Board of Supervisors and Public Utilities Commission to adopt the proposed agreement with EarthLink and Google.

Instead of wasting stormwater, the City could manage it as a resource. SPUR explores four strategies that allow for greater stormwater storage and infiltration of rainwater into the ground.

San Francisco is one of the world's great cities, not just because of its beauty but because of its culture. That culture is threatened directly by the high cost of housing. Unless we do something, we will lose our artists, our progressive politics, our immigrants and our young people. This second edition of our housing strategy updates the policy reports that define SPUR's housing agenda.

Uncertainty and delay are deadly to the efficient production of housing, both affordable and market-rate projects. Uncertainty in the approval process means more risk for developers, investors and lenders. And that translates directly to higher costs to developers for both equity and debt, leading to less housing being built and ultimately higher costs to housing consumers.

In this paper, we analyze the zoning regulations that make it difficult to build new housing in many parts of the city and make recommendations to increase land availability and density.

Parking spaces are expensive to build, especially where land values are high. If we can find a way to build less parking, we will see both reduced housing prices and more efficient use of urban land.

This SPUR report studies underutilized retail sites, and presents the possibility of replacing these sites with mixed-use developments.

Allowing homeowners to add secondary rental units to their property is one of the most promising strategies we have for increasing the supply of housing in San Francisco without significantly change the aesthetic character of our neighborhoods.

In the absence of strong statewide planning and in the presence of weak local planning, stopping projects is what California does best. The California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) has become the tool of choice for stopping bad ones and good ones.